FILE - In this April 17, 2009 file photo, Leonard Cohen performs during the first day of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. It's hard to think of any song that has taken a stranger journey through popular culture than Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." Author Alan Lights book, "The Holy or the Broken," releasing on Dec. 4, 2012, is about the trajectory of the song, Hallelujah, and about Cohen and its most celebrated singer, the late Jeff Buckley. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)

Photo: Chris Pizzello, STF

FILE - In this April 17, 2009 file photo, Leonard Cohen performs...

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This image released by Starpix shows Adam Sandler performing at the 12-12-12 The Concert for Sandy Relief at Madison Square Garden in New York on Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012. Proceeds from the show will be distributed through the Robin Hood Foundation. (AP Photo/Starpix, Dave Allocca)

Photo: Dave Allocca, HOEP

This image released by Starpix shows Adam Sandler performing at the...

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This image released by Starpix shows Adam Sandler performing at the 12-12-12 The Concert for Sandy Relief at Madison Square Garden in New York on Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012. Proceeds from the show will be distributed through the Robin Hood Foundation. (AP Photo/Starpix, Dave Allocca)

Photo: Dave Allocca, HOEP

This image released by Starpix shows Adam Sandler performing at the...

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The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of "Hallelujah" By Alan Light

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The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the...

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Dogfight: The 2012 Presidential Campaign in Verse
by Calvin Trillin

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Dogfight: The 2012 Presidential Campaign in Verse
by Calvin Trillin

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"The Passage" by Justin Cronin

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"The Passage" by Justin Cronin

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Justin Cronin, author and Rice University professor, poses for a portrait on the Sabine Street bridge, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012, in Houston. Cronin is a best selling author and writer of the popular book "The Passage". ( Michael Paulsen / Houston Chronicle )

Photo: Michael Paulsen, Staff

Justin Cronin, author and Rice University professor, poses for a...

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E.L. James' erotic trilogy sold more than 35 million copies in the U.S. alone, generating enough profit to give publishing-house employees a cash bonus.

Editor's note: Bookish, a new column by Maggie Galehouse, will run on Mondays with the national best-seller list. Look for book reviews and stories about authors in the daily Star section, and for all things books in the Bookish blog at blog.chron.com/bookish.

Hallelujah. It's not often one song inspires an entire book, but Leonard Cohen's timeless "Hallelujah," which has been kicking around since 1984, is worth the attention. "The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of Hallelujah" follows the rise of the classic. The book by Alan Light was released this month. (Just last week, Adam Sandler revamped it for a Hurricane Sandy benefit in New York, rechristening it an irreverent "Sandy, Screw Ya.") The spare but soulful Buckley version is still my favorite, though, and when it was played on "West Wing" - while C.J. wept over the untimely death of her about-to-be-lover Special Agent Simon Donovan (played by Mark Harmon) - it was utterly heartbreaking. No, love is not a victory march.

Oh, yeah. The election. What with fiscal cliffs and pregnant princesses, it's easy to forget our previous pastimes. But Calvin Trillin, deadline poet for the Nation, reminds us of everything we may have tried to forget in "Dogfight: The 2012 Presidential Campaign in Verse." Trillin's liberal bias oozes from each line, so if that's not your thing, buy another book. If it is your thing, a stanza about presidential debate No. 2 might amuse: The Fox News types said everyone's aware/ That Candy Crowley was, of course, unfair./ In their religion one can seem quite pious/ By blaming everything on liberal bias.

Readers' choice. More than a million readers voted on the best books of 2012 at goodreads.com, and I'm pleased to note that Texas was well represented. With 13,066 votes, Hill Country-based Jenny Lawson (aka The Bloggess) won in the humor category for "Let's Pretend This Never Happened," her "mostly true memoir" featuring taxidermy, phobias and four-letter words. Houston's Justin Cronin snagged 7,414 votes and top horror spot for "The Twelve," book No. 2 in his trilogy about a virus that transformed 12 death row inmates into "virals" who live on blood. Check out all the winners at goodreads.com/choiceawards/best-books-2012.

Shades of green. Publishing circles have been buzzing about the $5,000 bonuses promised Random House employees by chief executive Markus Dole. It seems E.L. James' racy "Fifty Shades of Grey" trilogy, published under the Vintage imprint in April, made so much money for the New York house that there's enough to pass around. The steamy trilogy started its life online, when James began writing fan fiction inspired by "Twilight." In 2011, after serious revisions, the books were released as e-books and print-on-demand paperbacks by a small Australian press. Vintage got hold of the trilogy in spring of 2012 and, since then, tens of millions of copies have been sold.